Immigration and Deportation Attitudes: Sexuality, Economic Contributions, and Respondents’ Partisanship

Abstract

Immigrant deportations are salient in many countries, but scholarship on deportation attitudes remains limited. Because some immigrants are especially likely to face harm if deported, we examine how immigrants’ identity and economic characteristics shape deportation attitudes. We focus on unauthorized LGBTQ+ immigrants in the United States, examining the interplay between immigrants’ economic contributions and respondents’ partisanship. We rely on an original survey experiment with a sample of U.S. respondents that mirrors Census quotas for key socio-demographic indicators. We present three main findings. First, without any information on economic contributions, similar levels of support emerge for the deportation of gay and straight unauthorized immigrants. Second, immigrants’ economic contributions substantially reduce support for deportation among both groups. Third, this apparent consensus masks important partisan differences. Democrats reward gay unauthorized immigrants significantly more than straight unauthorized immigrants for their economic contributions. The opposite occurs for Republicans: support for deportation is substantially lower for straight unauthorized immigrants who have made economic contributions. These findings illustrate how partisan identity structures the application of deservingness heuristics in immigration attitudes, with implications for immigration policy debates around vulnerable immigrant populations.